Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. The characters all belong to their respective studios and creators. I am just borrowing them for my story.
Author's Note: This story is set after the end of season 2 of Roswell (after Tess has already left) and in the beginning of season 6 of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer- after Buffy and Spike have gotten together, but before Willow was addicted to magic and before Willow and Tara broke up. Also, Giles hasn't left yet. Sorry for the confusing time lines, but this worked best for my story.
Chapter Six – The Kekkoniki Attack
"I'm telling you, Giles, Spike is being very weird, well, weirder than usual. He was acting really un-Spikey. It's like he drank some defective blood and his mind has been seriously changed," Buffy declared from the floor of the Magic Box, where she was doing stretches. She looked over at the rest of the Scooby Gang sitting around the table and continued, "It was like he wasn't even Spike- like there was someone else in his body. It was creepy."
"When did he start displaying this behavior, this 'un-Spikeyness,' as you so eloquently put it Buffy," Giles asked, coming out of the back room. "Has he been conducting himself this way for a while or is this a more recent development? Come to think of it, how long has it been since any of us have actually seen him, with the exception Buffy, of course." He looked at the rest of the group, waiting for someone to volunteer more information.
"I haven't seen him for a few days, but we never really hung out together much to begin with," Xander stated.
"Yeah, I haven't seen him lately either," Willow commented and Tara nodded her head in agreement.
"He first started acting like Mr. Creepy man this morning." Buffy frowned, remembering his strange behavior. "Before that he was just his usual, annoying vampire self."
"When did you see him this morning, anyway? It's eleven a.m. now, and usually you don't get up that early," Xander asked her.
"Oh, I was just out patrolling late and I stopped by his crypt afterwards to see if he knew anything about this a, this new vampire in town," Buffy finished, somewhat lamely.
"Uh, I see," Giles said, taking off his glasses and wiping them with a handkerchief. "And he was not acting like his normal self then, when you saw him this morning?"
"Nope. He also didn't seem to know who I was, he kept calling me Maria, or something or other."
"That is strange." Giles was still cleaning his glasses absentmindedly, lost deep in thought.
"Maybe we should go check on him," Dawn stated, coming into the room. "I mean, we need to know if he's alright."
"Dawn, what are you doing out here? I thought I told you to do your homework in the back room," Buffy told her sister, while firmly pushing her towards the door.
"Why do we need to check on him, anyway? Wouldn't it be better for us (and spare us the trouble) if he just got himself killed," Xander stated callously from the table.
"Xander, as much as we don't like him, he still has helped us get out of some really tight spots in the past," Buffy pointed out. "Besides, he's always been a great babysitter for Dawn, and those are hard to come by." 'Not to mention a really great ride,' she thought to herself. She then began mentally chastising her brain for even thinking that.
"Buffy's right, Xander. We may not like him, but he has proved to be an asset on more than one occasion," Giles stated.
Dawn used Buffy's momentary distraction to her advantage, by stepping around her sister and having a seat at the table with the rest of the group. Her efforts proved futile however, as Buffy (as soon as she finished telling herself not to think such bad thoughts) just pulled her up and sent her out of the room, calling after her, "Dawn stay back there and stay out of trouble. I don't want to have to tell you again."
Xander just sighed and said, "I guess you're right. Maybe we should go look for him, just to make sure he hasn't caused any more problems than he usually does."
The rest of the group nodded their assent and headed out the Magic Box door (after firmly telling Dawn to stay back there and making sure she would) to the cemetery and a very familiar crypt.
* * *
The Pod Squad arrived outside of Sunnydale just before eleven a.m. They parked the van in a parking lot close to their destination and then walked back to it. They stopped right outside the cemetery and decided that they would split up into two groups so they would be able to find Michael faster. No one liked the eerie feeling that the cemetery gave off and they all were anxious to leave.
Group one, which consisted of Max, Liz, Valenti, and the fake Michael (Spike) headed off to search the north section of the cemetery. The second group, which contained Isabel, Maria and Kyle, went to search the southern section.
As they walked, Max and Valenti were keeping the imposter between them and leading him along. Liz walked behind them, to make sure he didn't try to break away from them. All three of them (not including Spike) looked around and called Michael's name, hoping he would answer and they could leave and decide what to do with the fraud.
Suddenly, a large green thing jumped out at them from behind the bushes and made swiping gestures at them with its claws. All of them stopped moving instantly, unsure of what the thing would do, or even what it was. Everyone tensed for the probable confrontation, Max and Valenti still holding Spike between them.
The creature dove at them, and Spike using the distraction, broke free of his holders. The monster went after Max and Valenti, picking them up and hurling them against a tree, before either of them could react. Liz screamed and Spike used the opportunity to laugh heartily, glad that his captors had been properly disposed of. But then, the beast went after Liz and seeing the look of terror on her face, Spike froze. Maybe he had been hanging out with the slayer and her friends for too long, but he knew that he couldn't just stand by and let the helpless girl get trampled.
Spike jumped in front of her, pushing her back behind him, to safety, just as it was about to strike. "What's this, another big bad Kekkoniki demon? How do you ever survive being that soddin' ugly," Spike taunted the thing.
The demon roared with anger and raised its claws to slash at him. Spike instinctively threw his hands up to protect himself. Abruptly, there was a flash of light and then the demon lay in a smoking heap at his feet.
Spike looked at his hands in confusion and swore. "What the bloody hell?" He looked at his hands again. What had just happened? How the hell had he done that? This was shagging impossible.
Liz looked at him and fought down her panic- he must have somehow gotten Michael's powers. Unless she was mistaken, only Michael could do that, not some imposter. This was bad- this was very bad.
The Scooby Gang had just entered the cemetery when they heard the piercing shriek. Quickly, they all started running towards the source of the sound, sure that whatever had caused it could not be good. (This was the Hellmouth, after all.)
Michael had heard Liz's scream from the crypt (where he had been waiting for them, as it was daylight) and had taken off running towards where he thought he heard her. When he arrived, he found Max and Valenti crumpled up at the bottom of a tree, and Liz staring with fright at someone who could be his mirror image- someone who looked suspiciously like himself.
Isabel, Maria and Kyle had also heard Liz's scream and had run towards the sound as fast as they could, knowing something horrible had happened to the rest of their group.
Spike looked up from the still smoking demon (how had he done that?) and found himself looking into a pair of strikingly familiar eyes- his own.
All the two of them could do was stand there and stare at each other. It was just too unbelievable. As they both stood there gaping, the rest of the Pod Squad and the Scooby Gang arrived at the scene at the same time. Everyone halted in their tracks at the image in the clearing.
* * *
Don't you just love cliffhangers? I'll try to put the next chapter up soon, since I hate having to wait for the next installment myself. As always, reviews are enjoyed and appreciated. Thanks for all of the great reviews I have received- for you, I will keep writing this story. I hope you enjoyed it and the next one will be out fairly soon (I really will try). Thanks for reading.
By the way, unless I am mistaken, a Kekkoniki demon is one that I made up for the story. I don't think that it is a real demon in the Buffy universe, but if anyone knows differently, please let me know in your reviews. I needed to use a fictional (to the Buffy world) demon for this part. Thanks.